WASHINGTON — Former top US intelligence and administrative officials will became cyberwarriors on Tuesday in a simulation of how the US government would respond to a massive cyberattack on the United States.
“The scenario itself is secret and is hosted by Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC),codenamed “Cyber ShockWave.” The participants didn’t even know what it is. None of them knew what was going on.
A room at the Mandarin Hotel was transformed into the White House Situation Room, where the president and his top advisers typically meet to address national emergencies.
The Cyber ShockWave simulation has been drawn up by Michael Hayden, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and members of the BPC’s National Security Preparedness Group.
Former president George W. Bush’s Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff played the role of National Security Advisor to the president while former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte played Secretary of State.
Fran Townsend, George W. Bush’s Homeland Security advisor, was promoted to Homeland Security secretary while former deputy CIA director John McLaughlin was bumped up to Director of National Intelligence.
Joe Lockhart, former president Bill Clinton’s press secretary, served as a counselor to the president.
Other participants included retired general Charles Wald, the former deputy commander of US European Command, who was Secretary of Defense, and former deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick who moves up to Attorney General.
Cyber ShockWave will be open to the media and will be filmed and broadcast by the CNN television news network at a later date, was intended to “educate the public about our vulnerabilities” to cyberattack.
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